Norwegians raised their voices in unison on Thursday to get under the skin of admitted mass killer Anders Behring Breivik.

An estimated 40,000 people turned out in central Oslo's Youngstorget square to sing "Children of the Rainbow," a Norwegian version of "My Rainbow Race," written by American folk singer Pete Seeger.

During his trial for the killings of 77 people last summer, Breivik cited the song as an example of Marxist influence on Norwegian culture.

The Norwegian version of the song describes a "World where – every sister and every brother – shall live together – like small children of the rainbow," according to a report in the Norway Post.

Breivik, whose trial in Oslo City Court began last week,Â boasts of being an ultranationalist who killed his victims to fight multiculturalism in Norway.

Thursday's event, which included a march to the courthouse to drop roses outside,Â was â€śa beautiful, touching scene,â€ť said Geir Engebretsen, theÂ court chief justiceÂ in charge of Breivik's terror trial, according to a report on Views and News from Norway.

"Itâ€™s a very moving manifestation of Norwegian culture," Engebretsen said, according to the report, which cited Norwegian broadcaster NRK.

The idea for Thursday's singing statement came from two women, Christine Bar and Lili Hjonnevag, who became upset with Breivik's derision of the song and posted a call on social media for others to join them in singing it on the square, Views and News reported. They expected a few dozen people, the report said.

But by Tuesday, 4,000 people had accepted their Facebook invitation – and then 10 times that many turned up Thursday.

â€śI think this just shows that people felt a need to show their feelings, to make an expression of how they value the Norwegian democracy. Itâ€™s fantastic," Views and News quotedÂ Labour Party Secretary Raymond Johansen as telling NRK.

Culture ministers from Sweden, Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Iceland joined in the song, the Norway Post reported.

Lillebjorn Nilsen, who wrote the Norwegian version of the Seeger song, led the crowd in singing both the Norwegian and English versions, according to the Views and News report.

Norway is a small country – with a mere 5 million people. The killing spree of the imbecile nazi Anders Behring Breivik has affected us all.
But the overwhelming majority of Norwegians are steadfast that we will meet the mindless hatred and stupidity, not with violence and hate but with reason, respect and ... love. We will not stoop to the level of the killer.
That is why it was so important for so many people to meet up in the pouring rain on a normal working day to sing Pete Seeger's Rainbow Race (in both Norwegian and English). And 40 000 people is a lot in a town of 600 000 people.
(And yes, this makes me proud of being Norwegian.)

Well this Mr. Brevik is of course a very evil man. However, it is true that rampant immigration from places where the culture is not to respect and not abuse the generous social welfare system and lax criminal justice system that Norway has is going to destroy norway. He was an evil sicko and obviously murdering people is not the answer. But I think these people singing "children of the rainbow" are singing about the downfall of their own society. Hardly a cheery tune.

He has already communicated with others. There are a lot of right-wing people out there, with their own webpages and forums. Don't think for one second that we don't have people with the same ideas as Breivik in Norway – not wanting to kill people to get their point across, but still wanting to deny anyone but ethnic Norwegains to live in Norway. In our democracy everybody has the right to their opinion and express it (like USA) and maybe one should more often have discussions with these exstemists in the public arena.

About This Blog

This blog â€“ This Just In â€“ will no longer be updated. Looking for the freshest news from CNN? Go to our ever-popular CNN.com homepage on your desktop or your mobile device, and join the party at @cnnbrk, the world's most-followed account for news.